Beautiful Day for a Hike

For the past few weeks I've been craving a good hike so I decided early last week that we would do just that. I wanted to go somewhere we hadn't yet been and the Tahoe area has a ton of trails so I started my research there. I was able to find quite a few that sounded good, but they were pretty deep in Tahoe and I was hoping to maybe find one that wouldn't require us to go all the way up the grade. My co-worker Tomi is an outdoor guy so I asked him for some pointers. He directed me to Wrights Lake not too far from Kyburz off of Hwy 50. Pulled up some good information on the internet (what would we do without the internet!) and decided it would be the perfect spot for our hike.



Saturday morning we had every intention on leaving the house by 9am, but it somehow turned into 10am. It's not like we were in this huge hurry to be there at a specific time anyway so no big deal. We debated on taking Leo though I'm glad we didn't. When he's in the car for a long time he gets really anxious and won't sit still; it's quite annoying. I acted as navigator with our instructions in hand and off we went. Thank goodness I was paying attention because the road that we were supposed to take ended up being closed and we had to take the detour at Icehouse Road. Unfortunately that meant that it was going to take a little bit longer because Icehouse Road is super curvy. Thanks to the detour signs we finally got there because there were some points where we seriously thought we were lost.



The weather was perfect; a beautiful day for a hike. The news had forecasted thunder clouds but when we got there the sky was totally clear. We found the visitor's guide board, mapped out our path, and hit the trail. The first trail we took was Loop Trail that was directly along Wrights Lake. It was gorgeous; lots of people kayaking, swimming, and jet skiing. As we got further along the trail the scenery changed to huge marshes which was really cool looking but that's when we noticed the swarms of mosquitoes. They were everywhere and they were relentless. No matter how fast we moved or how much we swung at them, they wouldn't go away. Thankfully once we got to our next trail point, the terrain changed to rocks so the mosquitoes weren't overbearing. The new trail, Twin Lakes, took you out past the Desolation Wilderness boundary line so we had to fill out a permit to continue. Twin Lakes was also a lot harder for me and we had to stop a few times so I could catch my breath. As we got higher, the views looking back at Wrights Lake were beautiful. We found a flat spot on a huge boulder to have our lunch picnic and then continued our way up to Grouse Lake.



On our way back down the trail we ran into a couple who were expecting as well. She was only 18 weeks along but pregnant with twins. It was fun to share some stories with her of things she has to look forward to. They were both impressed with the fact that I was hiking at 30 weeks and said that it gave them hope that they wouldn't necessarily have to give it up either. Though I have to say that if I were 30 weeks pregnant with twins I might not be running and climbing over rocks like I am now. When we got back down to Wrights Lake we took the loop that went around the other side of the lake. It was also the side that all the summer homes and campground sites were. It made me think of my childhood when we would go camping at least once during the summer and I always remember having so much fun. Jody and I started talking about making those memories soon with our family, something I'm definitely looking forward to more and more now that Mallory's arrival isn't that far away.



Saturday's hike was perfect and we had a great time; minus the 20+ mosquito bites I came home with as souvenirs. Next time I'll remember to bring the bug spray!